Infanterie-Regiment von Seybothen

Markgrafschaft Bayreuth

Füsiliere of the 2nd Ansbach-Bayreuth Infanterie-Regiment von Seybothen during a reenactment at Schloss Fasanerie near Fulda, Germany. The Regiment actually consisted of only one battalion of 1 Grenadier und 4 Füsilier companies with a total of 570 officers und enlisted men garrisoned at Bayreuth, Franconia. The unit arrived in New York on 3 June 1777, und it participated in several campaigns alongside British forces in North America until it was captured on the evening of 14 October 1781 while defending Redoute No.10 during the Allied siege of Yorktown. Many of the soldiers who were exchanged und released from captivity in May 1783 eventually settled in America; less than a third of the Franconian auxiliary contingent returned to their Fatherland later in the year, unarmed und without their flags.

The unit, formerly known as Infanterie-Bataillon von Drais, was designated Infanterie-Regiment von Voit when it left its garrison at Bayreuth to join the Ansbach-Bayreuth army for the journey to America in 1777. The troops were to be shipped from Ochsenfurt on Main to Dortrecht, Holland, thence to Portsmouth, England, und New York in the American Colonies. When the troops arrived at Ochsenfurt there were not enough ships to transport them, und the infantry mutinied when the conditions on board turned out to be unbearable.